
Well, what a morning it’s been. This has been just out of sight for me. When these gentlemen were so skillfully playing their instruments, I felt like I was in heaven. I really did. I was weeping up here. I was weeping with every song they played. It was so touching, touching, touching. We probably, if we were invited to do so, we would give our own explanation or definition of what we perceive to be the anointing and how the anointing can be recognized. Years ago, I was being mentored by a very old preacher.
He hired me as soon as I got out of college. And Nicholas, he’d sit right in the front row, just like you’re there. Him and another old preacher, older than him, the two old guys. And the other guy was deaf as a doornail. And so when he would talk, he assumed Allen was deaf too. And so here I am preaching and they’re talking. The one would be saying, I told you he was good. Yeah, but I didn’t know less of a soul. And then all of a sudden, Allen would yell out, that’s the anointing day, but that’s it. And they would carry on. Did you ever watch the Muppets, the two guys up in the balcony? But because of how they functioned in that time, sitting there, and how they prompted me
and encouraged me, they were really my mentors in so many ways, it seemed to me that they got excited and said, there’s the anointing when I get excited. And when I lifted my voice and started carrying on like I do, like you know I do by times. And so then I came to a conclusion simply because of their mentoring, what the anointing looks like, what the anointing feels like. And I’ve concluded I was wrong because what you two did this morning wasn’t anything like everybody was careful not to say, I told you they were good. And there was no prompting from us. We were just spellbound. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is something that’s not surface. At times, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is obvious by certain outward manifestations. But the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not a manifestation.
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is the dynamo of His presence. And that presence comes through in so many ways, so many ways. I want to share with you a message this morning that I have preached enough times that I don’t need my notes. I’m known as a preacher who seldom uses notes anyhow. And I want to preface it with this, that it’s good when you’re in trouble to have somebody who cares and can be sympathetic and can help you out when you’re in some kind of a crisis or a jam. So years ago, pastoring a fellow came and was presenting to me the pastor some opportunity, some business opportunity for our church. It was insurance he was there to tell me about. And at any rate, I don’t know how we got on this topic, but he said, you know, he said, I don’t do well with the sight of blood. And I said, well, I’m not excited to see blood either.
In fact, I passed out when I saw a needle coming just to give me a shot. Like that’s literal. I don’t do well. I don’t like doctors. I don’t like dentists. If you are one, please forgive me. Don’t come near me. I don’t like it. So he said, no, no, he said mine, mine’s really bad. Like he said, mine’s really bad. I said, how bad is it? He said, well, it’s this bad.
He said it was, it was a typical morning. And he said, I was in the bathroom and I was shaving. And he said, we have an ensuite in our place. So he said, there’s just a door between, you know, between the bed and the sink. So he said, I’m in there shaving and getting ready. And he said, my wife, her duty in the morning was always, she got up and it was her habit. She’d make the bed and get everything. Then she’d go downstairs and prepare our breakfast, etc. But he said, oh, this one morning, he said, I was in there just shaving away. And all of a sudden I heard her shriek. And I yelled, what is it?
What is it? She said, oh, that silly steel foot for our bed. She said, I just kicked it. Something fierce. He said, yeah, what’s happening? She said, oh, I’m bleeding. I think I’m bleeding bad. He said, oh, don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. He said, get on the bed. Lay down, lay down, lay down.
So she said, okay, I am. I’m going to get blood on the sheets. He said, don’t tell me that. Don’t tell me that. He said, you just lay down and you’ll be calm. He says, listen, listen. He says, can you hear what I’m doing? He said, I’m running cold water. I’m running cold water right now. Let’s make sure it gets really cold. He said, yeah, I’m putting a little cloth under the water now. He said, are you okay?
She said, well, it’s bleeding. He said, yeah, yeah, I got that. I got that. And so he said, okay, I’m ringing with the cloth. I’m coming now. And he said, I went running over to run around. You’re this side of the bed to my side of the bed. He said, I laid down and then put that cloth on the top of my head and said, I’ll be with you in a moment. True story. He said, I couldn’t look. But he said, she looked at it and said, it’s going to take stitches. You gotta get me to the hospital. So he said, that was a challenge. Get my wife to the hospital without looking. And he said, finally we got there. He said, I raced in. He said, I was in total panic. He said, I didn’t know how bad it was because I couldn’t look. And he said, wheelchair, wheelchair. And so suddenly he brought him a wheelchair and he raced out to help her get into the wheelchair.
And he said, he took her and he was actually showing me. He said, I’m taking her there. And he said, my wife, she’s bad. She’s bad. Well, we’ll take care of her. You just go over there and sit down for a moment, sir. They could see that he was in trauma. So he went and sat down and he said, they took my wife somewhere. And he said, I guess they found it wasn’t as bad as that they might have. Then he said, they wheeled her out and said, well, where’s your husband? They insisted that she still sit for a bit.
So she’s on a wheelchair and they took her out. Which one is your husband? And she looked and she said, well, he’s not here. Well, where would he go? She said, well, he wouldn’t leave me here. I don’t know. They went back over to the desk where there’s somebody somewhat important and said, did you see Mrs. Rutledge’s husband? And the lady said, oh him. He’s on a stretcher in room three.
He passed out sitting on the chair thinking about what they might have been doing with her. It’s good if you’re in crisis that you have somebody nearby that’s actually helpful. Well, there is somebody that’s nearby. He’s nearby right now. And he’s ever so helpful. I have been preaching now for 60 full years. And I have developed a habit over the years of when I come to the end of a message, maybe something like this one this morning, as a courtesy to the people who are sitting in the audience, as a courtesy, I offer a prayer for someone who might feel that they’d like to take advantage of such a prayer.
I believe that that is how I will conclude here with my short message for you this morning. As a courtesy to you, I will offer to pray for you. I need to tell you about this passage in the book of Deuteronomy. Tell you just a little bit about it before I read my text. If I just dive in at the text, it may not make sense. These are the last hours, this record, the last hours of the preacher prophet whose name was Moses. God was about to take him home. He was not allowed to go into the promised land. Great men of God who made an error, and he was going to pay for his error.
He didn’t get to visit. He didn’t get to step in the promised land. But God anointed him. There’s that word. God anointed him to preach a message to all the 12 families of Israel known as the 12 tribes. They were all sons of Abraham. And so God anointed him and prompted him to speak a message over each tribe. So he called out the name of each tribe and he prophesied what the Lord was going to do through the coming ages in and through that tribe.
When he got to the end of that message, that prophetic message that was for each one of them, the Lord still prompted him one more little nugget where he realized he was to preach one little message to all of the tribes now, a concluding prophetic word, and this is what came across. Now remember these people were about to go into treacherous territory. They were going to be a lot of enemies. They were going to meet a lot of cultures with different gods. Every one of them had their own God. There’s no such thing as a group of people in the world. Name the tribe you want. Every one of them has some kind of a God. I’ve traveled the world. 37 countries. I never met a tribe that didn’t have some kind of a deity that they were trying to reach out to. They all acknowledge that there’s an ultimate being only we who are highly educated have decided that that is all wrong. Sorry. And so here’s Moses with a word from the Lord for all of them as they were going to face foes, angry people who were going to try and kill them up. He said these words, there is no one like your God.
There’s no God like the God of Israel. And then he goes on. That is the capstone. Remember this, there’s no God like your God. But then he goes on to expand what he meant by that. He’s the God who rides on the heavens to come and help you. That’s a visual, isn’t it? He rides on the heavens to help you. And in his excellency on the clouds, what a beautiful picture that when you are in crisis and you call for his help, Israel, but when you hear today, when you are in crisis, when there’s a need in your life, the promise is that he will come swiftly, how swiftly, like one would ride on the clouds in his excellency to meet you at the point of your need. He goes on to say, not only is there no God like your God, the God of Israel, he says, he’s the eternal God and he is your refuge. So now, in this prophetic word, he’s going from speaking in a very broad sense. There’s no God like your God, but now he comes drills down and he speaks it personally to everyone who is listening that day. The eternal God is your refuge, your hiding place. That’s not just for the entire nation, but that is for every person who’s listening, who dares to focus and not let their mind wander off.
This was a message for every person who was listening in that day and it was a message for them and for their children and for their children’s children. And thank God that Israel to this point right now has not totally forgotten that. There is no God like their God and all the nations around them are finding that out all over again. They defeated three nations in one day. Hello? That’s just recent because there’s no God like the God of Israel who rides on the heavens to help you. The eternal God, the everlasting one,
wants to be your home, your refuge. Then he finishes up with and underneath are the everlasting arms. The eternal God is your refuge. There’s no place like home. Those who would be running when the sirens of Israel are wailing because there’s missiles coming, there’s attack coming. They would run to the bomb shelter and there they would feel very, very safe, but not all that comfortable. And they would listen intently. This is modern. This is today. They would listen intently for those sirens to stop wailing. And when the sirens stopped wailing, it was a signal. It’s okay. Now you can go home. Now you can go home. Everybody wants to go home. I told the story of years ago when I felt it was my calling to leave the past or it and travel because I was invited to go and preach here, there and all over. So we sold our house. We got rid of everything.
And that’s April’s idea. It’ll become very obvious in a moment. It was my idea. I wanted to live in a motorhome. First thing I got was one of those CB radios. Hello, breaker, breaker. This is the new covenant man. I’m on the highway. How are you doing there, breaker, breaker? Do you see any bears out there? We lived in a motorhome and traveled the breadth of Canada all the way out to BC. And from there I would do my preaching. And so we’d sold everything. Sold all our furniture, got rid of all of it. You know, we’re just going to be fancier. The kids had left home. Our two youngest ones were in college out west. And I had a cell phone that cost a fortune in those days.
Very first cell phone I got cost $6,000. That’s how much they cost. So all of a sudden the cell phone’s ringing and I turned to April. I said, you better get that. So she turns and she says, oh, it’s Melanie. I said, oh, Melanie’s living in Edmonton and we’re down in the United States. She said, hi, mom, where are you? April turns and says, she wants to know where we are. That meant that April wanted to know too. I said, you tell her we’re in North Dakota.
Hi, honey, daddy says we’re in North Dakota. And Melanie apparently replied, is that on the same planet that I’m on, mom? Oh, a little bit of an edge there. Why would you put it that way, honey? It’s true that you sold the house. Yeah. And it’s true. You gave my dog to a newfoundlander. Yeah, we did. And what about my bed?
You got rid of my bed. Well, sweetie heart, you left home. Yeah, well, you were kind of glad about that. There’s nowhere for me to come to my bed. Now, my bed’s gone. Everything that I know, you sold it all. What’s daddy thinking anyhow? So just tell me, mom, if I want to come home, do I go to North Dakota? Yeah. Well, no, sweetie. Well, where do I go?
Well, we’ll tell you where to go. So there’s no way for me to know in advance. It went on for a while. She now lives in Edmonton. She never came home again. Of course, there was no home. And she has never forgiven me. Now, it was okay that I got rid of her bed. But to give her a little sandy dog to a pastor up in Labrador City, that was she’ll, she actually bites. She says, yeah, I haven’t forgotten my dog. Her big thing was, where’s home? There’s, there’s nothing like home. It’s, it’s where it’s, it’s almost sacred. It’s a place where you feel that you are going to be provided for when you are at home. You can go and get yourself another cookie and not wonder if somebody’s watching you. Well, that’s almost true. In my house, my wife is counting the cookies. So I do have to find ways to sneak stuff around. But when you’re in your house, you can take your shoes off or you can keep them on. When you’re in your house, you can make your bed or you can forget about it. When you’re in your house, you feel safe. You feel secure. And that’s what the Lord says. He wants his relationship to be with you. He says, I want you to be comfortable with me. I don’t feel like, I don’t want you to feel like you’re in a bombshell to her or something that it’s, it’s, it’s for an hour or two hour for a little bit.
I don’t want you to, I don’t want you to live in a place where you feel strange. I want you to feel comfortable. I want you to go and test every doorknob. I want you to open every closet, every door, because I want to be your resting place and where you feel the safest. There’s so much more I could say about that. But sufficient, God says, I want to be your dwelling place, your castle, your force of Sean or Rock, your cave, if that’s what you need. That’s who I want to be in your life. Now, to me, the message that Moses has given the people of Israel in this verse, to this point, is sufficient. I would think you did it.
You did it, but he adds one more line. Not so significant in my head. He says in very broad terms for the whole nation, there’s no God like your God and don’t you ever forget it. He listens, he’s attuned to your heart and he cares about you. And it’ll always be well with your soul if you stay in touch with him. There’s no God like your God. But then he drills down and says, he wants to be your dwelling place. And to me, that’s all sufficient.
But then there’s one more line. And it’s this, he adds, and underneath you are the everlasting arms. So in my mind, I try to pull this together and I try to get, I try to see a little, a little drama, a little, a little movie or something, that God comes to me wherever I am. I call out, he comes to me and that tells me somehow or other, so if he’s not with me, if I call, he’ll come to me and you’ll ride on the heavens to get to me. But I thought he’s always with me. So if he’s always with me, why does he have to ride the clouds to get to where I am? And then it dawns on me. Most of us have had a moment in our life where you knew that it’s sad, though I am with you always. And you’ve also been aware somehow or other of the theological terms, he’s omnipresent means he’s all present. He’s omnip powerful means there’s no power greater than his power. But then there’s that tricky one where he’s all places at all times. He’s omnipresent, omnip, everywhere present. So okay, okay, you okay? You’re with me all the time. You’re always present. Then he says, but if you call, if you shout, how come quickly to where you are?
No, I thought you were here. What’s this about coming to me? But there have been times in David’s life when I felt he was far away. I knew what it said, but we’re all prone to depend upon feelings. I know you’re supposed to be there, but I’m not sure you are. Have you ever heard these words? I prayed, but the heavens seemed like brass. It seemed like the door was closed. You knew better, but you just had this feeling, this feeling of struggle. If you want to learn about struggle, read the Psalms. We’re the psalmist, a man after God’s own heart, a man who knew God, a man who wrote hymns. Beautiful hymns don’t look like what we heard this morning. Hymns about God that soothed hearts, hymns that bless us to this day, the glorious psalms. Read the Psalms slowly and find out that the psalmist calls out to his soul. He says, soul, why are you so disturbed? Why are you so cast down within me? Because his soul was in crisis. And for those few moments, he didn’t know which way to turn.
He felt like a plowed-up field. He felt ripped. Disappointment was a shallow word to try and describe how he felt. He felt he was alone. He didn’t know which way to turn. Have you never been there? Because I have, I have been disappointed with God more than once in my life. But you’re the preacher, but pinch me and I’ll say, ouch. I live in shoes just like you do. And there have been times when I prayed that God would do thus and so, and he didn’t do it. Was he ignoring me? No. No. He has reminded me, David, your ways are not always my ways. And you’ll never see my ways as necessarily acceptable to you for your ways. His ways are past finding out. All things will work together for good to them, the love God, and to those who are the called according to his purpose. Sometimes there can be a moment in your life where those verses sound memorable, but for some reason they don’t ring a bell inside.
If all things are supposed to work together for my good, how come I feel so tormented right now? So the admonishment of an old grandpa maybe would be to the grandchild when you’re in trouble, run for papa, run for home. If you feel threatened, head home, God says, I want to be your dwelling place. Come to papa, come to me. When you’re hurting, come to me. But I promise you, if you’ve never been there, there comes a time when you want to run to him. But there’s no strength in your legs. Have you ever had a moment when literally you stood to your feet and it was like your legs weren’t there? Happened to me two years, two days ago, right in my own living room suffering with this ugly virus and infection in all kinds of ways. And I said, April, quick, and she stepped over and I put my hand on her shoulder. I said, I just want to get to the sink and you helped me walk there. I felt like my legs were disappearing on me. It’s just what the flu was doing to me. But that can happen also in your emotional, can I say spiritual dimension also? I’m going to run to papa. And when you try to run to him, how is it that you go to the Lord? Go to the Lord in prayer.
There can come a time when you can’t find words that would be an appropriate prayer. You want to start with, why? And you think that’s in the Pro-I? I can’t question God like that. But that’s the obvious word you want to start with. And so this is the thought that I had coming to this platform today, the old guy said, that’s the anointing, David. That’s it. That’s it. You’ve got it. That’s it. I was engineered by those gentlemen.
This is the way it works, Dave. They were ranking my ability to follow after God by what they saw. Can I use the word by my performance? They were ranking God’s working in my life by my performance. And the thing that I wanted to say to you and I chose not to, I was going to stand up and just make an announcement to you today. I was going to stand up here and say, Christianity is not a performance. You saw how Sister Minerva handled that. You heard how your neighbor had you heard. And so you believe that’s how you have to handle it. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Again, the Lord said, there’s nobody like your God who rides in the heavens to help you. But then he goes on to say, and he wants, he wants to be your home. He wants you to take your refuge in him. It’s a personal thing. And a walk with God is not a three act play where you learn your lines, you study these verses, and now you know exactly what to do. Beloved, I tell you, there couldn’t come a time when you want to call upon God and you want to lean upon him and you don’t know even what verses to rely upon. And you feel like your prayer is an empty box car and you feel undone.
But there’s a promise if you ever get to the point where you’re so low, you’re so low. There doesn’t seem to be any spiritual strength. You’re lost and you’re bewildered. Moses said, always remember this. If you’re in a total jam, look down. Because underneath you are the everlasting arms. Take advantage of the everlasting arms. Okay, David. Okay, let’s do this. Tell me how I do that. And somebody’s going to tell you, fast and pray for 40 days.
That’s how you take advantage of under, that’s performance. Forget it. Here’s how you respond. Sit down and look down and relax. What do I pray, David? Try shutting up that sounds rude. Prayer is not a speaking marathon. Prayer is a relationship. Because you see, you’ve made God your home and you don’t have to shout to be heard. It’s supper time. Do you want to come and eat, David?
Oh, yes. Let me say, how do I have to perform? What do I have to do to come to the table? No, David, you and I, you’re with me. I’m with you. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Did you notice that when God says He’s going to do something for you, He never says, here, like a coupon for bed and bath and beyond. Here, here, this will work for you. God says, Jesus said, I’m the bread of life. He said, I am the way. I am the truth.
I am the life. He didn’t say that’s the door to heaven. Go ahead and use it. He said, I’m the door. Come to me. If any man first let him come and drink of me and you’ll never thirst again. So if I’m in right relationship with him and that’s the key, that’s the key, that’s the key. As I’m coming to a close now, that’s the key. Am I in right relationship? Did I tell you? Maybe I did.
My daddy was recovering from a heart surgery and I was visiting him in the hospital in Hamilton. Standing beside him, I was quite moved because he’d been bleeding and of course I was going to faint. He’d take down open heart. I figured they took a chainsaw and I heard terrible things that they did to open you up. Use the jaws to open you up and go in there and mess with your heart. And I was fainting, just thinking about it. So I’m standing there looking over my dad and my heart is going out to him. He survived it of course. But I felt a little prompting in my heart.
You see, he was in a room with another man that I didn’t know about yet. My back was against a hanging sheet like a drapery and there was a man right there. And as I backed up and looked around, there was a man in that bed. I had just prayed with my daddy, went over to that man and I looked upon him and tears were running down his cheeks, under his pillow. I said, hi, my name’s David and that’s my daddy on the other side of that curtain. He said, I gathered that. I said, you heard me pray for my daddy, didn’t you? Yeah, I did. I bet you’re wishing that I would come over and pray for you.
Dear God, yes. I said, well, I’m here. I said, I talked to my daddy’s friend. His name is Jesus. I just called upon our friend. I said, I’d like to talk to him on your behalf too, but I’m just wondering, do you have a relation to you? Is he your friend? No. I said, well, let’s begin with this. How be I introduce you to my Jesus and having done with that, then I’ll talk to him about how you’d like me to pray for him. He said, I’d like that. I pray to pray with him. There’s more to the story. We’ll leave it there. It’s about relationship. It’s about relationship. It’s about being so undone. You don’t know how to rescue yourself. And the Lord gives you an out underneath or the everlasting arms. You don’t have to perform well. I’ve got news for you. He’s never impressed with your prayer. I’m sorry. He’s not impressed with your prayer, but he’s
moved by your prayer. We’re never impressed with the words of a one-year-old. They babble. They make all kinds of mistakes, but we’re moved by it. And we say, come on, talk to daddy. Come on, talk some more. That’s how the heavenly Father is with you. He’s not weighing and measuring your work. Did you say it right? Did you say it right? It’s not performance. It’s yielding. It’s all about performance. He wants to be your papa and he wants to be your personal refuge. Yes, I’m going to take that courtesy off for now. Just everyone bow your heads, close your eyes.
I wouldn’t say that there’s lots of people in this place today. Yeah, I’m going through a difficult time, David. And I need to look down. I need to sit down in his presence. I need to rely on him. I need to stop stressing and fussing. I need to relax in faith and believe in him. I’m sure there’s people like that. But maybe there’s some folks here today who would say, David, unlike the man in the bed who didn’t know Jesus yet, boy, I sure would like to. I sure would like to know him.
Well, this is in a hospital room and I’m some distance from you. And I’m about to embarrass you in any way. Here’s what I want to do. I want to pray for you. I’ll stay here. You just sit right where you are. But David wants to pray for you today if that’s what you’d like. I’d like to pray a prayer for you that would begin you on your journey to knowing him and establishing a relationship with him. I’d like to pray specifically for you today. But I’ll do it standing right here. If you would like in on that little courtesy prayer, would you give me a little signal right now? Yes, thank you. No hesitation. It’s all God bless you. Is there anyone else? I would say, David, I don’t understand all of this, but I sure want to find my way. Would you pray for me? Is there anybody else? Bless you. Anyone else? Grace’s father, I can’t peer into someone’s soul. They say that if you look in someone’s eyes, you can see their soul. I’ve never discovered that. I do know that not only do you see the soul, but you claim the soul belongs to you. All souls are mine. So Lord, these people today who have responded very privately to say, David, I trust you to pray for me today.
So Lord, you know them by name. I don’t even know their names, but you know them by name. So Lord Jesus, you who knows every soul, you who knows every person, somebody in this room has been moved by something that was said, out of this book, and it touched them and that moved them to the point where they said, I want a piece of that. So Lord, you’ve got to take over because I have tremendous limitations. I give these people to you now, and I pray, Lord, that you will put people in their way, and I’m happy to be one of them or the one. I pray, Lord, you’ll put people in their way, that will help them to find the door whose name is Jesus, that will help them to discover the taste of the bread who is Jesus, that there will be people who will be introduced to their life, and maybe they’re already there, will help them to taste the water whose name is Jesus. If they will help this person to discover that Jesus is the way and Jesus is the truth, and Jesus is the life. So Lord, I lift these people up before you. I know that you’ll be generous with them, and I pray, Lord, this final prayer, I pray that they will find comfort in your presence, that they will always long to be with you, that the house of the Lord will be something that they crave because it feeds them to be with people of like heart. I pray, Lord, that in their own home, at their dinner table or beside their bed, as they would kneel perhaps and read the scriptures, I pray, Lord, that they’ll find that to be a comfortable place because that’s when they feel close to home, help them to discover home whose name is Jesus.
For I ask it in his name, Amen.